Why does everyone hate my game?

mpatric Wrote:Holmes, I released the very first iPhone Reversi for the app store launch. A few days later a free Reversi app came out (Morocco) and I suddenly got a dozen or so 1 star reviews by people complaining that my app wasn't free (the reviews on other stores actually focused on the game rather than the price, which was US$2 btw), even though the AI and user interface on mine were better and mine offered several options the free one didn't. Back then, users could review apps without even buying them. IMO the situation has vastly improved since then. Yeah sure, users are now encouraged to rate an app when they delete it - at least they have to buy or download it in the first place!

Even though your app is hurting my own sales, I hope it works out for you. I know how hard it is to see months of your work get slated for no good reason.

Had I realized how many Reversi apps there were (and how many would be produced in the time it took me to make mine!) I probably would have chosen a different game.

I'm sorry my app ended up competing with yours. Thank you for being civil and supportive none-the-less. I know there are times when I have felt ... well, less than that, toward competing apps. I guess we could all use a reminder now and then that we are all in same boat.

It seems like there is just as much money to be made as before, but now there are just more people to compete with to get that money. Only the top x apps are making a lot, and thats the same x as it was 4 months ago. So you could probably say the effort(to make an amazing app)\luck(to get noticed and attract the throngs) needed to make money is higher then before. Agree?

kendric Wrote:Only the top x apps are making a lot, and thats the same x as it was 4 months ago. So you could probably say the effort(to make an amazing app)\luck(to get noticed and attract the throngs) needed to make money is higher then before. Agree?

Yes, but unfortunately being in the top x is not necessarily proportional to the effort put in, as evidenced by SoundGrenade (which the developer blogged about writing and releasing to the app store in a single day). Don't get me started on fart machines!!

It's disheartening to see a crapplication written in a few days outsell you when so much effort has gone into your app. I spent 5 months on my last app. I'm hoping it was 5 months wisely spent.

funkboy Wrote:I met the guy who made the fart machine... It didn't seem like a big deal at the time that he demoed it to me. Certainly got a lot of sales and attention though...

This guy was extremely lucky.

His application was #1 in the charts when Apple froze all new submissions to the app store for Christmas. This allowed him to stay in the #1 spot for probably longer than anyone else ever before, and during a time period when app sales had increased by something like a factor of 2.

His application got tons of free press because prior to it 'apps of limited use' were not allowed in the store. Everybody wanted to see this 'banned app'.

Finally, he made even more money by all the press he got by telling people just how much money he had made.

Before he was an extremely lucky iPhone developer, he was a "New York Times Best Selling Author and Social Media Expert". He ran a pretty popular blog by himself and he also played very dirty with marketing tactics.

funkboy Wrote:We should be careful not to derail this thread - I apologize if my comment steered it off track. For the record, I happened to meet the developer, not the person mentioned in this article.

5 months of iPhone development for an impressive game such as this is certainly a good investment... just think how fast the next iPhone project will go, for starters!

It's alright to derail the thread in this case, hey, I give you permission

Though of course if anybody still wants to give me feedback that's welcome too.

But personally I enjoy complaining about iFart Mobile and the likes just as much as anybody.